Twisted Seat Frame XK-140 OTS -

This topic has been addressed in the past but not fully resolved. I purchased new leather seat covers for my XK-140 (Aldridge Trimming Ltd., UK) and have a local custom upholstery shop preparing for the installation. In their initial assessment the existing seat, It appears the inboard areas of the seats are twisted rearward causing a misalignment between the seat-base and seat back. This seems to cause the additional problem, …creating an excessive space between base and back. Does anyone have a photograph of the seat back frame showing the inboard “arm” (…that extends downward to attach to the seat base frame). I am attempting to see this inboard back attachment / support has a natural twist, or if the top and bottom portions of this support should be perfectly parallel and on the same plane (understanding that the top and bottom portions are connected by a 45 degree intermediate section). Any photo or thoughts on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Tom A

the frames the way they are stepped on the XK140 are very prone to twisting. When I make the seats I actually use a slightly thicker guage of steel I have to as the old guage thicknes steel not available so go up to the next metric thickness.
On later 140 seats not roadster the factory put in across brace to support and then went to tubular frames.

I have new information so I am going to reply to my own question for the benefit of anyone having this issue in the future. I have a local custom interior builder that just completed my XK-140 seat restoration. This company has been in business for over 50+ years working mostly on custom American cars. (No Jaguar restorers in WI) Upon disassembly of my seats, he indicates the problem was obvious. Though my California car has no sign of rot in the plywood portion of the seat back, the plywood was obviously delaminating due to its age. This causes the screws and bolts that attached it to the metal framework to loosen and subsequently allowed the frame to bend, particularly the inside (center) vertical structure of the seat back. He decided to laminate an additional width of plywood to the existing seat back providing a solid base for attaching the metal framework. At the same time he straightened the metal framework. Now the straightened steel frame attached to the new plywood combined for a very rigid and straight structure.

As an additional note, the new foam for seat back and bottom did indeed properly fill the space between the seat base and seat back - both meet properly as designed. The rebuilder was quite favorably impressed with the Aldridge Trimming Ltd., (UK) provided leather seat covers, indicating that both materials and workmanship were of high quality.

Tom A.